AUSA: Raytheon submits JAGM contract proposal

23 October, 2012

SOURCE: Flight International

BY: Dave Majumdar

Washington DC

Raytheon submitted its contract proposal to the US Army to continue the development of its version of the Joint Air to Ground Missile (JAGM) on 22 October. The service is continuing the development of the new weapons in phases, the first of which is developing the guidance section.

"We have submitted our proposal for our sole source contract for our participation in continued technology development to Huntsville today," says JR Smith, Raytheon's business development manager for the JAGM.

The company hopes to be "up and running" on the next part of the programme in a couple of weeks.

While originally the army wanted the weapons to be developed with a tri-modal seeker with imaging infrared, millimeter wave radar and semi-active laser homing, the service has dropped the requirement for imaging infrared capability due to cost.

However, because Raytheon's JAGM seeker is actually the same seeker at the company's seeker from the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) II, Smith says it will continue to develop the system with all three modes.

"By the time continued technology development is done for JAGM, we'll be in our second year of production for SDB II," he says. Moreover, 75% of the development of the SDB II will also be complete by then. "It just makes too much sense," Smith says.

Raytheon confident it can deliver the seeker at a cost acceptable to the army.